How To Choose The BEST Wedding Photographer
What are the qualities of an ideal wedding photographer?
This question comes up as a couple decides on their big day! Here is a checklist and some information that will be helpful. At DARS Photography, we go over some key details with all of our clients to make sure they have it well arranged before their wedding day!
Searching for your wedding photographer early
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- Best thing to do is start looking at least 12 to 18 months in advance. Most of the well-known wedding photographers in a specific city are booked that early since they may have a good reputation and a large clientele along with an amazing online presence with a good showcase of their work. Pick a photographer who has years of experience and matches your style. Ask your professional wedding photographer about how long they have been shooting weddings and also to show their best albums. Request to see recent weddings to make sure their photography style matches yours.
- Make sure to read the past and current customer testimonials and evaluate overall portfolio.
Wedding photography style
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- What is your style that you would like your wedding photographer to use artistically and creatively? That’s the #1 question that needs to be answered by your wedding photographer in a great detail. Does it need to be a in a story-telling fashion or should photojournalism be elaborated when photographing your wedding? Lay it all out & make sure to have it your way! Request recommendations from your experienced wedding photographer after telling him or her your love story or how you guys met. You can also ask for good referenced wedding vendors such as DJs, makeup artists, florists, cake bakers, caterers, musicians, stationers, officiants, dressmakers, wedding planners, event designers, cinematographers, videographers, and entertainers with great reviews and plenty of experience.
Competitive Prices
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- Ask your wedding photographer to offer several packages. Packages that are tailored to your specific needs are ideal. A well-settled wedding photographer should be able to work with your budget and provide optional packages.
- If you have a limited budget or certain number of hours restriction, your wedding photographer should be able to accommodate the needs and also work with your schedule.
Pleasant personality, cheerful face, full of excitement, ready to make it unique & memorable
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- Your wedding photographer should be a people person. An awesome personality is a must! Someone who can make little kids giggle as well as entertain the couple, family, and guests is a plus. We go a step beyond and mix in with the family to get the best possible expression that is needed to capture and preserve your lifelong memories. Indian weddings are sometimes 3 to 4 day long and after the wedding is over, we actually miss the family sometimes since we get so involved at each event!
Free pre-wedding photo session
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- An ideal wedding photographer should include a free pre-wedding photo shoot. For us, this is the best time to meet the couple, get to know each other, go over the requirements, style, and some of the key details as we take their photos and experiment with poses.
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Help with Makeup / Clothes
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- Not all wedding photographers (males) may be able to help with makeup or last-minute clothes adjustments (fitting), but many times the bride is all alone and the makeup doesn’t turn out the way it should! We have seen this happen at couple of the weddings last year. If a female wedding photographer is aware of this, she can be very helpful at the last minute since she’s prepared to tackle a problem like this. This is just one of those things that can be a life-saver, if needed.
Key details for your wedding day
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- Your ideal professional wedding photographer should go over specific details of all the events of the wedding to make sure not a single precious moment is missed. This should include everything from arriving early until end of the entire function.
On the wedding day
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- If a wedding planner is not available, your wedding photographer should request a designated person who will be available to answer any on-the-need basis questions that come up on the wedding day. This designated person should also be ready so the wedding photographer does not miss any precious moments. One of the tasks of the designated person is to request family, friends and guests to make sure to give clear path to the professionals for the best possible shots rather than crowding the couple to take a picture with their phone or other cameras. We have run into this problem several times in the past.
Special requests on the wedding day
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- Your photographer should be able to accommodate your special requests, such as, making sure to have some pictures of the kids who may be camera-shy or elderly family, and/or guests who may have limited movement.
Best possible equipment
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- Your professional wedding photographer should have the best photography equipment in his or her arsenal. At least couple of camera bodies and all the necessary lenses for various scenes and poses should be included and be ready to go. Reception pictures need to be sharp with limited lights. You should have a small talk about the types of equipment that is being utilized by your photographer just to educate yourself on the process. (Entirely up to you depending on how much time you have before the big day!)
- See our complete list of photography equipment in “What’s In My Camera Bag” blog!
Back up cameras / equipment
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- Your wedding photographers should have back up equipment if one fails for any reason.
Sneak Peek
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- Should be included in all packages offered & ready in an online gallery within 1-3 days after the wedding. From our past experience, this is what most couple look for. Facebook posting of a sneak peek is very much recommended.
How are the portraits edited?
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- You may have your specific style of keeping your photos moody, lighter, or darker. Communicate with your photographer on your preferred style for best results.
Ask how the photos are delivered and when albums are ready
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- Your ideal wedding photographer should be able to provide all the details on when the photos will be delivered. There should be an online gallery available as well as one-click download folder for all the pictures. The rights to your images should be provided. The details on once the photos are delivered and the pictures are chosen for the album, the timeline of the album(s) being delivered should be declared. Your photographer should also be able to provide separate copies of pictures for social media sharing since they will need to be resized properly without losing quality.
Wedding Photo Montage
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- Request a wedding photo montage from your photographer since that can give you a glimpse of your entire wedding in just 5 to 10 minutes. Although very time consuming, it is one of our favorite things to do!
Feedback
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- Wedding photographers, as ourselves, appreciate our clients’ feedback and we continue to improve upon to make our next wedding even better. Some photographers charge for additional editing such as removal of blemishes or fixing hairline, etc. Your ideal wedding photographer should include the normal edits as part of the package. Once the edits are completed to your satisfaction, a review should be completed and provided that can be helpful to future couples getting married as yourselves.
Infographic coming soon…
Have any tips for us to add anything else? Comment away!
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Good Suggestion . thanks for sharing . Lyricskiss
Thank you for stopping by & leaving us a comment Neha!
Wow lovely pics. Thanks for it
Thank you for stopping by Sharon. It’s those moments that really keep us going. We love looking at those photos as well. Goal is to be able to relive the entire wedding every time you open the album. Best wishes for your wedding & the new life.
I agree that it’s important to choose a wedding photographer that’s available and always ready to make sure that they won’t miss precious moments. We’ll remember this because my fiance and I are getting married soon. We have been together for more than a decade, so our wedding day is really special for us. It can really be great if the reactions of our beloved parents are going to be captured so we can always be reminded how much they love us through their photos.
It truly is hard to please everyone sometimes. We, as a team, try our best. Our goal is open & honest communication from the beginning. Thank you for your comment and visiting our blog.
While the tips you have mentioned here are truly interesting and make me feel they make complete sense, I disagree with your point about the people’s person because it is not always easy to find someone good at his profession and also a people’s person. The images you have shared in this post are truly interesting.
Thanks for visiting!
Hii nice article